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“Ah, yes, Miss Boggs. Nice to see you again.”
“Thanks.”
“Have a seat and we’ll get you back in a few minutes.” She gave me a warm smile and gestured to the waiting area where a couple sat comfortably, holding each other’s hands and waiting to go back themselves.
I took the seat opposite from them and picked up a magazine from the table. I started flipping through the pages, not really reading the articles. It was more just to have something to do with my hands, so I didn’t get up and walk out the door.
This was the most nerve wrecking thing I’d ever done. “Are you trying to have a baby, too?” I looked up at the girl across from me. She was looking at me curiously since I was alone. Her husband was a slim guy with glasses on, and he was looking at his phone while waiting for their appointment.
“Umm, no.” I shook my head. “I’m going to be a surrogate for someone.”
“That’s awesome of you. You seem so young to take on something like that though.”
“I’m in college,” I said shrugging, not really giving away my age. I was eighteen, still my birthday wasn’t for another five months. “I need help paying for school, so this is how I’m choosing to do it. Nine months of my life in exchange for financial freedom for the rest of my life. It makes sense.”
The woman across from me flinched and her smile dimmed quite a bit. “We are trying not to have to go the surrogate route because of the cost, but if this doesn’t work, we may have to.”
“How long have you been trying?”
“Two years. We’ve been married for five.” She looked over at her husband, who wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, giving her a kiss on her temple. “We tried for over a year before we came here the first time, but I’ve got endometriosis, which makes getting pregnant hard. We are going to try this one more time. If this doesn’t work, we’ll have to either give up or find a surrogate.”
“I hope it works for you.” I gave her a hopeful smile. My heart hurt for the couple; they seemed so cute together, and they wanted to have a little one to share in the love they built as a family.
The woman’s situation helped ease my nerves because I realized I’d be helping a couple like this one. A couple who couldn’t conceive for whatever reason would have a baby because I was going through with this. That thought alone made me feel better.
When the couple got called back, I wished them luck and picked up another magazine. This time, I actually tried to read some of the articles about pregnancy. It took me a while to get through even one article because of my dyslexia.
I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was in elementary school. As hard as I tried growing up, reading didn’t come easy for me. I would have to repeat passages over and over again because I couldn’t comprehend what the material said. Last time I was here, the receptionist had to read the forms to me because the words kept floating off the page. It was embarrassing to say the least.
With a sigh of frustration, I closed the magazine and put it back on the table. There was no use trying to read it. I’d have to get audiobooks on pregnancy to listen to. My textbooks were all digital format so I could do text to speech and listen to it rather than read the information.
I learned to adapt to my disability in most instances. I went to the same restaurants all the time unless one of my close friends was with me to help me order. Audiobooks were my favorite present people got me. I would put on a story and forget myself in someone else’s world. I envied how authors could string words together and invest their readers in the world they created. I couldn’t do it. In fact, I almost didn’t make it into the university because my test scores were that low in reading and writing. My math scores were what saved me. I could work with numbers and equations no problem. That was my wheelhouse, which is why I was double majoring in Business Administration and Economics.
“Narina?”A nurse appeared to lead me back to an examination room. She smiled when she saw my head shoot up. “You ready, honey?”
“As I’ll ever be,” I said with a small smile, getting nervously to my feet and moving toward the door that led me to my fate.
Chapter Two
Royce
Three Weeks Later
Work.
Work was the distraction that I needed after my visit to the fertility clinic where I jerked off into a cup. I still couldn’t believe that I went through with this plan. Stefano and Grant got lucky. Falling in love with the woman carrying my kid, that was an anomaly left for my friends. I didn’t expect to get that lucky, especially since the odds of the woman being a “Little” were slim to none.
I was looking over a contract for a security job overhaul when my secretary buzzed through on the phone. “Mr. Cavanaugh, you have a call on line two.”
“Thanks, Betty,” I said, picking up the phone. “Cavanaugh.”
“Mr. Cavanaugh, this is Angela from the New Hope Fertility Clinic. Is this a good time?”
I sat back in my chair and took a deep breath, hoping that they found a surrogate and a donor. “Yes.”
“I just wanted to let you know that we have pregnancy confirmation for your partner.”
“Partner?” Warning bells started going off in my head. “I don’t have a partner. I was looking for an egg donor and a surrogate.”
